Lehmann suffers play-off defeat

Tom Lehman lost a play-off in Colorado tonight and with it missed the chance to climb into seventh place in the race for places in his own Ryder Cup team.

The 47-year-old tied with fellow American Dean Wilson for The International tournament, but it was all eyes on Lehman as he tried to become the first Ryder Cup captain to win during his term of office since Jack Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters.

However, Hawaiian Wilson captured his first US Tour title with a 10-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole.

Lehman, who came into the week 29th on the points table and without a victory since 2000, still moves up, but only to 19th with just this week’s US PGA championship to come before the top 10 are automatically selected.

He has yet to totally rule out being a playing captain at the K Club in Dublin, saying after the third round: “If I were to make the team I don’t know what to do. That’s the truth.

“But would I play? Probably not, really, because I’m not putting well. I feel like I would be letting the team down with the putter. I wouldn’t want to deal with that.”

If he does still qualify and decides not to play, the player in 11th will take his place.

Lehman was among those to take advantage of a terrible round by overnight leader Zach Johnson, himself ninth in the cup standings and seeking to clinch his first cap.

Johnson set off with a double-bogey seven and could not recover, eventually finishing 13th and failing to add to his cup points at all.

Instead it was 36-year-old Wilson who led for much of the day, but he was caught when Lehman covered the last six holes in three under.

They finished on the 34-point mark under the tournament’s format whereby birdies earn two points, eagles five, but a bogey is minus one and anything worse minus three.

Sergio Garcia suffered from last-day blues yet again, managing only a three-over-par 75 and dropping from seventh to 29th.

As on the European Tour, players were wearing black ribbons following the death of Darren Clarke’s wife, Heather. Clarke is a member of both circuits.

Stewart Cink came fifth and improves from 20th to 12th in the cup race. He is one of the favourites for one of Lehman’s two wildcards.